What is Korean Curry Powder
Korean curry powder is a common ingredient used in Korean cooking. While it didn’t make the cut into my essential Korean cooking ingredients list, it is mostly used when you make Korean curry.
Many people also use a small teaspoon or tablespoon of it when they marinate meat as well. The curry powder gives unique spice smell, so it blends well in certain dishes.
Korean curry powder (Karegaru, 카레가루) is a yellow spice mix containing flour, various spices and fat. Of course, many instant version also contains other food chemicals, which I often struggle to pronounce.
Korean Curry Powder Ingredients
Korean curry powder comes in several different flavors. And, the below ingredient list is based on Ottogi mild curry.
Wheat flour, dextrins, curry powder 10.5% (turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, fennel), vegetable oil (palm oil), refined salt, corn flour, vegetable cream, onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, seasonings (soy sauce powder and yeast extract powder) etc.
Note – There are 4 other chemical ingredients I had to leave out as I couldn’t find the right english terminology. (Too technical for me!)
Ottogi Korean Curry Powder
When it comes to Korean curry, Ottogi is the most well known brand.
Among other sauces and packaged products, they are well known for producing ready to eat “3 mins Korean curry” as well as Korean curry powder.
At present, Ottogi curry powder comes in 5 different flavors – Ottogi curry, Ottogi vermont curry, Ottogi bekse curry, Ottogi fermented tumeric curry, Ottogi matured curry and all of these come in 3 different spice levels – mild, medium hot and hot.
Korean Curry Powder Substitutes
As each company’s curry powder mix is different, you won’t be able to find the exact alternative. However, if you’re trying to make Korean curry and can’t find it, you can use Japanese curry sauce mix (roux) instead.
Japanese curry is a bit darker (like chocolate) than Korean curry and it also gives you more richer texture, but it would be a good substitute.
If you need Korean curry powder to use in a marinade or in other seasonings, you can try Japanese curry powder (I haven’t tried this one, but some people say it’s good) or Keen’s traditional curry powder.
Keen’s traditional curry powder has quite a stronger taste (and a lot spicier), so you wouldn’t want to use a lot of it. If a recipe calls for 1 Tbsp Korean curry powder, I would use 1 tsp Keen’s traditional curry powder. Hope you can find a sweet spot with more experimentation.
Recipes Using Korean Curry Powder
Try some of my recipes using Korean curry powder.
- Dak Galbi (Korean Spicy Chicken)
- Kkanpunggi (Korean garlic fried chicken)
- Baked Curried Chicken Breast
I will include more recipes as I expand my recipe collection.
Do you know how many servings of curry is the powder packet presentation? (as seen in the pictures from your post)
It serves 4. 🙂
For years I’ve searched for a recipe for a homemade version of Ottogi curry mix powder. My husband loves the taste, but the store-bought version makes it unsuitable for people avoiding animal products, gluten & high sodium, among other things. Plus, in America where we live, Ottogi powder is mad expensive. If you know of a homemade spice mix recipe that comes close to the Ottogi taste, I (and I’m sure a lot of people) would love to know it!
Thanks for your blog! I love your recipes, especially your crispy pajeon.
Turmeric: 20g
Cumin: 14g
Coriander: 12g
Cinnamon: 4g
Cayenne Pepper: 3g
Garlic powder: 3g
Ginger powder: 3g
Dill: 3g
Thyme: 2g
Sage: 2g
Cardamom: 1g
Cloves: 1g
Anise: 1g
Nutmeg: 2g
Black pepper: 2g
Bay leaf : 2g
Ground coffee: 1gr
fenugreek (5gr)
dried tangerine peel (10gr)
I used this recipe for japanese curry but I skipped thyme,anis,dill,dried tangerine peel and sage and was still amazing.You could try this,I’ll try it with dakgalbi and tell you if it’s good.
Which ottogi curry powder flavor do you use in your dakgalbi recipe?
I used mild flavor. 🙂